A bevy of gaming references and little details capture the heart of gaming.

Warning: Minor spoilers for Wreck-It Ralph follow, though they mostly deal with video game references rather than story particulars

Wreck-It Ralph became the biggest box office opening for a non-Pixar Disney film in the company’s history this weekend, bringing in over $49 million. That’s an incredibly strong showing for a movie that had to manage a pretty mean feat: create a video-game-infused world with enough detail to satisfy game-obsessed children (and their retro game-obsessed parents), but also remain accessible and understandable to family members who haven’t grown up in the arcana of gaming.

It’s a balancing act the film handles well. Even non-gamers will immediately latch on to the Toy Story-like conceit of a world where arcade game characters are sentient beings, who have their own lives after clocking out of their jobs acting for the benefit of gamers. Ralph’s story of wanting to leave his position as the “bad guy” after 30 years and go off to prove that he can be a hero is instantly relatable—no special knowledge of gaming required.

It’s a bit of a hackneyed concept, for sure, but the simple “grow beyond your means” basis includes quite a few heartfelt beats, touching on themes of discrimination, the artificiality of labels, the importance of a support structure, and even pseudo-parental pride as it meanders to its predictably redemptive conclusion. For a movie that could have easily leaned on cheesy game-themed puns and familiar characters, having a strong, well-made story underneath is a welcome surprise.

But that’s all somewhat incidental to the gamers who’ll be checking out Ralph for all the gaming references and in-jokes promised by the saturation advertising these last many months. Surprisingly, the movie makes very lean use of the bevy of real-world video game characters it managed to license from companies as diverse as Sega, Nintendo, Capcom, Namco, and more.

The vast majority of screen time for these characters comes at a cheesy-but-cute “Bad-Anon” meeting of video game villains trying to come to terms with their “necessary evil” role. It's a scene that’s been significantly spoiled by the trailers and ads for the movie. Despite the many writing possibilities to be gained from having Bowser, Dr. Robotnik, Zangief, and a Pac-man ghost in the same room, these licensed bad guys are used mainly as window dressing to let Ralph discuss his personal problems (and don’t get me started on the idea of giving Zangief a major speaking role rather than, I don’t know, M. Bison?)

I just noticed what I think is a giant, walking "Shine" from Super Mario sunshine in the background of this shot.

Outside of that scene, real characters and games are mainly relegated to the background. The bartender from Tapper serves as a sympathetic ear, which is a nice conceit, and the idea of Ryu and Ken getting together after a fight for a brew is used for a cute throwaway joke. Sonic the Hedgehog shows up in an animated information sign to give a quick exposition on the rules of the world, then he’s never seen again. Q-Bert plays a minor role in the story, though his scenes are mainly focused on how “hilarious” it is that he speaks in gibberish language. The best use of a real-world game in the movie might just be a flashback to the installation of a Roadblasters arcade cabinet, which a kid excitedly declares to have “the best graphics ever!”

Then there are the countless gaming references relegated to “blink and you’ll miss it” cameos. A walking piece of bacon from Burger Time shows up in the background of a party scene, and Pac-Man makes an equally brief appearance. Street Fighter’s Chun Li walks by with some generic princesses at one point in a crowd scene. An “exclamation point” icon from Metal Gear Solid shows up as a non sequitur at one point, complete with the iconic “surprised guard” sound effect, one of many familiar audio cues to be picked out throughout. I’m sure there are plenty of other bits of freeze-frame fun that won’t become widely known until the DVD release.

If Ralph’s licensed characters feel underused, though, the movie makes up for it with a number of lightly satirical, fictional games that feel true to life. Ralph’s game, Fix-It Felix Jr., is such a plausible hit from the golden age of ‘80s arcade games that I've actually wasted quite a few hours on the playable online Flash version. Then there’s Hero’s Duty, an interesting mix of Time Crisis-style light gun game and Halo knock off, complete with an over-the-top cut scene introduction, flying bugs with glowing weak points, and tough as nails, heavily armored support team. I particularly liked the idea of representing the player in the game world as a motorized robot with a telepresence screen for a head.

Enlarge/ Didn't Nestle make a kart-racing game like this sometime in the mid-'90s?

Practically the entire second half of the movie takes place in Sugar Rush, a super-cute, candy-infused parody of Mario Kart and its ilk. The movie gets the feel of the kart-racing genre just right, including a bevy of offensive and defensive power ups, jumps, and hidden shortcuts throughout. There’s even a section of track that quite obviously patterned on Rainbow Road, and an extended scene with an extremely believable (and wonderfully slapstick) kart-building mini-game.

The Sugar Rush section of the movie does drag a bit, though, and the avalanche of candy-themed puns threaten to overwhelm even fans of the corniest of corny jokes. This is a shame, because I was eager to see the filmmakers’ take on more familiar game genres after getting a taste for their pitch-perfect fictionalizations. On the plus side, they've saved plenty of material for the sequel.

Even outside of games themselves, there are lots of little details that show a deep affinity for the minutiae of gaming culture. Many characters walk with the herky-jerky, three-frame animation common to ‘80s arcade games, a decision that works even though it looks a bit odd on the 3D animated characters (and even though it’s implemented inconsistently throughout the movie). There’s an arcade owner with a referee’s shirt that will be familiar to fans of Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day, and the credits even feature an original song from Pac-Man Fever duo Buckner and Garcia (be sure to wait until the very end of the credits for a nice Easter egg, as well).

It all adds up to a movie that works both as a love letter to the world of gaming and a touching allegory to very human issues. In a world that’s given us cinematic travesties like Super Mario Bros: the Movie and Doom, it’s nice to have a film that treats the medium right for once.

Promoted Comments

This, to me, was a video game movie that was made by people who actually love video games. From the graphics (8-bit retro down to the modern) to the sound effects to the design of the cabinets and the animations. They got the scanlines correct. They even showcase a large number of graphic styles at the end of the game (with a number of nice homages to various games).

They get the feel of the kart-racing genre right, the on-rails FPS shooter, and how these fake video game characters might interact with each other if they were real. They were a lot of "internal rules" (I was very amused at how many minor things we arcade gamers take for granted are "big deals" for the in-arcade characters) but they all made sense and they weren't really needed to understand the world at large. If you got them, great. If you didn't then you'll probably get it next time.

I felt that it was a really good movie and it also has some lovely characters as well as a good "moral of the story" component to it that's suitable to kids but not nauseating to adults, either.

Back track to NIHM, yes I love the film but that story was written as a young juvenile piece of fiction (not an original story) that was a Newberry and White award winner and let's be honest here it was a Don Bluth production he had no problem working with a solid story foundation.

Huh, I didn't know that! Good call. I guess my choice of comparison was a little rushed... just sort of felt they related to each other as journeys of self-discovery. Didn't want to completely debase my argument by comparing Ralph to Plague Dogs, or something else equally horrifying.

PS My first comment was just obliterated, oh man...

Hate to break it to you but 'Plague Dogs' was also a very well known book before they animated it. Same author as 'Watership Down.'

Wreck-it Ralph cannot help be heavily rooted in pop culture. The core subject matter is one of the purest forms of pop culture in my lifetime. For every other area or genre there was a high-brow entry the snobs could flock about, reveling in things made for a very limited audience, often just a single wealthy patron. But video games have always been about the mass consumer market and focused on younger consumers at that.

It's kind of like the old Warner Brothers cartoon which would be a parade of caricatures of actors and singers who were known to everybody then but many of who had become obscure to a kid watching this on TV in the 70s. It was still very valid art but someone at a far remove from the events that inspired it might need help with the context.But the same can be said for any story rooted in a particular era with distinct references to things that are long obsolete.

Wreck-it Ralph should still be enjoyable thirty years from now but it may come with a documentary to explain the early days of interactive games before they were beamed directly into your skull.

496 posts | registered Feb 8, 2006

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

In SF2 he works for Shadowloo but later this is toned down and he's just a wrestler. But he's still Russian, so obviously still evil right? .

You're thinking of Sagat, where he was part of Shadaloo in SFII but was retconned in the Alpha prequels as having left the organization. Zangief was always the uber-patriotic wrestler looking to bring glory to his beloved Mother Russia.

Storyline scrubbing aside, went with my long-time, video game loving friends to see this movie last night. We all loved the movie, both the video game references and the core story. It's a movie that you'll enjoy even if you don't get the game references, and will love if you do.

Back track to NIHM, yes I love the film but that story was written as a young juvenile piece of fiction (not an original story) that was a Newberry and White award winner and let's be honest here it was a Don Bluth production he had no problem working with a solid story foundation.

Huh, I didn't know that! Good call. I guess my choice of comparison was a little rushed... just sort of felt they related to each other as journeys of self-discovery. Didn't want to completely debase my argument by comparing Ralph to Plague Dogs, or something else equally horrifying.

PS My first comment was just obliterated, oh man...

Hate to break it to you but 'Plague Dogs' was also a very well known book before they animated it. Same author as 'Watership Down.'

Wreck-it Ralph cannot help be heavily rooted in pop culture. The core subject matter is one of the purest forms of pop culture in my lifetime. For every other area or genre there was a high-brow entry the snobs could flock about, reveling in things made for a very limited audience, often just a single wealthy patron. But video games have always been about the mass consumer market and focused on younger consumers at that.

It's kind of like the old Warner Brothers cartoon which would be a parade of caricatures of actors and singers who were known to everybody then but many of who had become obscure to a kid watching this on TV in the 70s. It was still very valid art but someone at a far remove from the events that inspired it might need help with the context.But the same can be said for any story rooted in a particular era with distinct references to things that are long obsolete.

Wreck-it Ralph should still be enjoyable thirty years from now but it may come with a documentary to explain the early days of interactive games before they were beamed directly into your skull.

i honestly thought Zangief was a perfect character to give Ralph advice. Most players would have faced Zangief more than M. Bison in the arcades annyways and he is (in wrestling teminology) a Halfer, meaning that to some he is a villian (the USA) to others he is a hero (Russia). he would have that kind of perspective making him the logical choice. They could have done it with Bowser, but we never actually hear him speak ever.

I did think that this was one of the best movies that Disney has released in years. It had a timelessness in the story telling and the characters that felt very much alive. I haven't seen such a completely entertaining movie like this out of Disney since the musicals they did in the early '90s. I can't wait to see what they can come up with next. Also that short before the movie was amazing.

I know there are little (or no) original ideas left in Hollywood these days, but I swear to you this idea (about a video game character breaking out of his boundaries) has been done before, but for the life of me I can't recall if I am correct, or gone totally nuts.

Help?

Tron?

Someone commented the toons in the Bad-Anon meeting were all recognizable. Who was the female?

Just came back from the movie and it was fantastic! While I wanted to see something more akin to "Smash Bros" all stars (much like how this year's "The Muppets" was getting the cast back together around a 3rd party muppet), the second and third acts of the movie where greatly enjoyable once the mind set changed to view the movie much like a well designed video game would work.

Spoiler: show

While Ralph was the main protagonist, Felx, Von Sweets, and Penelope shared tons of time and big scenes. Especially important was the reference to some big game moments that kept me amazed and grinning. For example, the Sugar Rush race referenced Rainbow Road and Walugi Pinball maps; Turbo Prime looked and moved like Motherbrain from Super Metroid with Von Sweet's glitching referencing Samus' empowerment at the end of the same game. The Konami Code as to access the world's debug menu. The story twist about Von Sweets' and that heartbreaking scene reminded me of something, but I can't recall what excately. (The world would end if she "wins") It's just a ton of stuff to enjoy!

Also, to add on some of the hidden stuff I loved: seening JENKINS and "Sheng-Long was here" spray painted on the station terminal!

I'm happy so many Americans likes it now I will see when I can enjoy this in my local cinema....*checking IMDB*... Oh how unusual 8 February... Hmm although hilarious UK 15 Feb...

Now could anyone here explain why we that basically make better sub translations need to wait 3 f*king months? I'm pretty sure it takes the same amount of time to make dubbing no matter what country you make it in and there's a lot of non English native countries in that first month...

And how does this work to reduce "piracy" (copyright theft but anyhow)?

Oh did I mention I go to a lot of movies (paying for cinema tickets and popcorns...) and really want to see this one... "They" pulled the same cr*p with "Brave" and "Ted" among others... I have a really hard time waiting this long to see movies I hear "buzz" about 3 months early...

Tv Series fans make tons of superb subs in a few hours... It´s must be something else - I hope - (rights, distribution, etc) that makes those movies stuck for so long.

I know there are little (or no) original ideas left in Hollywood these days, but I swear to you this idea (about a video game character breaking out of his boundaries) has been done before, but for the life of me I can't recall if I am correct, or gone totally nuts.

I think there's a much deeper level to this movie that everyone is missing, and it's mostly centered around the the Turbo character...

Spoiler: show

Turbo was a symbol of the movie industry itself. New tech comes along (Roadblasters), and Turbo freaks out and tries to stop it. Then, when he fails at that, he tries to change the laws of the game itself so that he can remain in power and be "King Candy." And he'll clearly stop at nothing to do this.

Then you have Diet Cola Mountain, with its Mentos stalactites, which becomes a clear representation of the Internet. (Remember how hot those Diet Coke & Mentos vids were on YouTube?) So at the end, when Everyman Ralph tries to break the Mentos and drop it into the "lava" to create the beacon that saves the day, deformed Turbo snatches him up and carries him away to stop him -- but then Ralph breaks free and begins freefall toward the giant Internet symbol, muttering, "I'm bad, and that's good." Hrmm...

It's as if the creators of this film, who are clearly tech geeks like us, are trying to tell the rest of the movie industry that their attempts to control the Internet are not only futile, but driving people away from the industry, so please stop now before your destroy yourselves -- because ultimately, you're not really going to destroy creators. Creators will create no matter what.

Of course, I might just be projecting my own beliefs on this movie -- which by the way, is the first movie I've seen in the theater since Congress introduced SOPA & PIPA. (Gamer nostalgia weakened my resolve.) Still, I have a hard time believing the writers put those things in there by accident.

BTW, I'm also of the opinion that "In Time" is the only way anyone could make a movie about Napster and get away with it. But maybe that's just me.

I'm happy so many Americans likes it now I will see when I can enjoy this in my local cinema....*checking IMDB*... Oh how unusual 8 February... Hmm although hilarious UK 15 Feb...

Now could anyone here explain why we that basically make better sub translations need to wait 3 f*king months? I'm pretty sure it takes the same amount of time to make dubbing no matter what country you make it in and there's a lot of non English native countries in that first month...

And how does this work to reduce "piracy" (copyright theft but anyhow)?

Oh did I mention I go to a lot of movies (paying for cinema tickets and popcorns...) and really want to see this one... "They" pulled the same cr*p with "Brave" and "Ted" among others... I have a really hard time waiting this long to see movies I hear "buzz" about 3 months early...

Tv Series fans make tons of superb subs in a few hours... It´s must be something else - I hope - (rights, distribution, etc) that makes those movies stuck for so long.

Well as far as I get it it's definitely about distribution because much of the delay is planing by "big media" of how they will earn the maximum amount of money, so distribution sort of... For example it a movie opens the same time as another bigger or more well known movie they will earn less and get less "buzz" from movie goers and less of the spontaneous watchers will choose theirs. Same goes for weekends normal/vacation/"spend time with family"/etc it varies and they know it. And mostly they succeed in making a less attractive movie get enough amount of income before releasing the next "really big" one. Most "subbing" and dubbing is done in good time but it isn't what the company feels is a "good time" to release it so they wait.

"Ted" is good example. A movie aimed more at adults that just needs some subbs that is fast and easy to do especially when you have the actual script. But it was not a big budget movie that "everyone" spoke about (like Avengers for example) early summer but when it got released in US it was a big hit. But unfortunately it was planned to release for autumn instead, because it would then contend against less "popular" movies and probably bring in more by that. However they made a mistake on how popular it would be, but might have by that also contended with for other movies like Brave, Avengers, etc (oh yea, I have a horrible memory and can't remember what I saw early summer, makes it easier to see same movie twice though :-) ). But they put it to late in for autumn schedule so they actually had "sneaky previews" for about 3 weeks really late in the evenings...

Now give me Wreck-It-Ralph in english (dubbs are mostly really horrible anyway), subbs are unimportant, but I want it now and I want to pay for myself. And my second alternative I don't think work would appreciate, a +2 months self-induced coma for a movie might be hard to explain... :-P

I haven't seen it yet, but I may check it out when it makes it way to home viewing options.

Oh, and there is no bacon in Burger Time only hot dogs, pickles, and fried eggs. I've only played the Intellivision version of the game, but from what I can see those were the only baddies in the arcade version as well.